Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced today that it entered into a collaboration agreement with Iktos to discover and develop a novel small molecule compounds using Iktos’s unique artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Iktos will apply its AI technology platform and know-how, helping to bring new insights and directions into the drug discovery process based on a comprehensive data-driven chemical structure generation technology complementing Ono’s drug discovery program to expedite the identification of novel small molecules against therapeutic targets selected by Ono. Ono will acquire exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize small molecule compounds discovered in the collaboration. Iktos will receive research funding plus milestone payments based on achievement of research events from Ono.

Toichi Takino, Senior Executive Officer / Executive Director, Discovery & Research of Ono, said:

Iktos has excellent AI technology and platform in drug discovery. Through this drug discovery collaboration, we are excited to work with Iktos to identify and develop the next generation of innovative treatments, leading to further expansion of our development pipeline.

Yann Gaston-Mathé, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer of Iktos, said:

We are very pleased to collaborate with Ono, a leading pharmaceutical company based in Japan, and proud to announce our first collaboration deal with a Japanese pharma company. Our ultimate objective is to expedite drug discovery and achieve time and cost efficiencies for our collaborators by using Iktos’s proprietary AI platform and know-how. We are confident that we will be able to identify promising novel chemical matter for Ono’s drug discovery program.